The interior design market continued to improve in 2018 and into 2019. Although consumer spending remained stagnant, contractors remained firm in their ambition to market that growth would be in the rising property value and ever-increasing rental prices markets. This optimism resulted in a continued rise in interest from contractors, builders and other service providers in the RIBA, who now pursue the goal of expanding market share. In 2018, many markets from construction to design experienced considerable rate of growth with a growing emphasis on expansion of services. Demand for interior designer services has grown across the board and design firms are seeing the opportunity in both the commercial and residential construction markets. For some firms, expansion of interior design services expands into the construction management market and into a wider range of business and function design skills.

Another increased incentive for firm expansion in 2019 is availability of students who might be interested in entering the emerging interior design professional market. The design and construction of offices and retail spaces have joined the evolution of interior design in recent years, and designing and building these spaces is where most design firms are concentrating their expansion efforts. Design firms are also taking another step towards expanding their network of collaborators, business partners and vendors in a continued move toward a more sustainable, collaborative ecosystem. Earlier in 2018, a great deal of attention in the UK, with new home stock and new developments reaching record highs in recent months. Architects are now receiving increased commission requests for design services on commercial as well as residential developments and homeowners are looking to design homes which maximise spaces without compromising livability.

As the residential market continues to grow, many homeowners and small businesses are starting to consider home renovations and repairs. Business improvement consultants and firms are stepping up to the challenge of interior remodeling and renovation in their under-serviced areas. Homeowners are increasing their focus on in-home services and design as a means of streamlining their lives. As small businesses look to expand their footprint, interior design and interior architecture firms in the UK are looking to expand into smaller municipalities. This year, we have also seen an increase in new design focus. Source: The Smartest Person in Minnesota is Tim Brown

Major building authorities are putting more focus on design, as seen by the opening of new design centers, renovation zones and group design seminars by local councils. Design consultancy firms are increasing their focus on the interior design of new homes. There are also efforts to create an internal focus on the interior design and details of office environments and retail spaces.

There is a well-established precedent that the end of the twentieth century served as a transition to what came to be known as the postmodern. Often, however, this transition has taken less than a decade and has proceeded smoothly. Many of the postmodernists of the 1990s are not remembered as stars, while the postmodernist contemporary today is well ahead of them. Consequently, the true postmodernists are the focus of the “Modernism” museum exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art—one of two such institutes currently housed in the United States. Even if the entirety of history is timeless, over time certain countries and eras have had a large impact on the culture and orientation of the arts. Some nations, such as Britain or Germany, are the subject of constant study and comment. Many of the same are now viewed as postmodern ones: France, Brazil, and Argentina. The United States has long suffered the old lament: We are famous for a lot of things, but we seem to be slow to follow through with them. Often this is true of the arts, where the ascendant will tend to replace the failing and the obsolete with new works and styles. In any case, let us take a look at the role of a single century. Starting with the 18th century, art is very diverse: We can see effects of landscape painting, of landscape engineering, of folk art, of literature, and of domestic art, among other periods. By the early twenty-first century, however, the pre-industrial arts are almost totally absent. The classicism and empiricism of the nineteenth century seems quite dominant. This lack of pre-industrial art was a problem for tourism. Visitors to what is now known as Switzerland visited the Alps to see the magnificent domes of the monasteries; visitors to what is now Germany visited the Reichstag to see the centuries-old Grand Palace; and visitors to what is now France visited the Belle Époque villas of Paris. One might be tempted to suggest that hotels were too modern and bring the spaces back to, say, medieval levels. But this, too, is not true. Because pre-industrial art and architecture can be found only in limited and well-constructed recreations, and because such recreations have no incentive to come up with a fake version of pre-industrial art, pre-industrial art is actually absent from the architecture of France and Germany as well as Switzerland. The simple truth is that we are remiss if we do not recognize pre-industrial art and architecture as important parts of the cultural heritage and retro korean shampoos. As we think about the current postmodernism, one of the significant things we know is that a strong push toward postmodernism was organized on the logic of the “value” of non-urban living. This understanding sought to “compensate” for the long-term decline of cities in the West. Hence architecture arose as a response to urban decay and produced some very strange forms of housing and housing design. This importance is highlighted by the context: We have learned so much about housing between the 1900s and the 1960s. So it is important to understand that these regulations come directly from the work of the most profound thinkers of the nineteenth century, who offered instruction to their successors. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, postmodernism achieved an impressive level of dominance in American art, architecture, and design, so that it would seem unlikely that a half-century later, we would easily take for granted that the postmodern aesthetic would not turn out to be dominant. An amazing number of changes have taken place in the world over the last two generations. The places we visit do not always look the same; there is not always a leading nation to consult about the success or failure of new forms of art or architecture. Given these forces, a reaction is on the cards. While I did not see the SFMOMA exhibition in San Francisco, I think one can draw broad conclusions from the publications and talks delivered about the exhibition, as well as various survey shows. It is worth wondering, and I believe now even more than I did when we began writing this, how to tell between trying to explain the age of the postmodern and how to warn the young and those just beginning that this is an era of popular decline. Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist who teaches at George Mason University. This is an update of an article published by Bloomberg View on November 18, 2017.

Riffing on Chris Heath’s piece from earlier this week, I think I’ve arrived at a comprehensive account of what makes architecture, through each of its various physical forms, special. There are six distinct types in all, and each is associated with different emphases in architectural design. There is the repetitive, the disorienting, the sanctified, the labyrinthatic, the dynamic, and the sacred. From this, I think I have condensed a kind of architecture, as against a mere aesthetic experience.
The first form is repetitive, I call it the pietistic form. It is ornate, almost religious, given to stories and fables. Described most poignantly by a nineteenth-century French noblewoman, the madonna as reconstruction: The dark-haired lady (she likes to be called Madam) enjoys and exalts an elaborate, ornate and meditative structure built with all manner of wrought iron to her immediate need to commune with her chosen deity, the Madonna. This Renaissance-style building is symbolic of and reflective of the Madonna’s unconstrained actions: Freedom, not obedience, is the essential characteristic. To this modern interpreter, Benedictines are the Rosa Parks of architecture, as there is a sense of enmity and distrust between them and (French-wrought) nobility.
The second type is disorienting, I call it modernist architecture. Even if it is full of humanistic elements, it tends to make use of quantitative and statistical techniques for rendering a building to form a form that approximates something ideal—though not necessarily the ideal community or community space, but a state of being or experience.
And as modernist architecture grew in influence, modernism and 20th-century style went hand in hand. Conceived as modernism, many buildings now look out of step with today’s buildings. But the different forms of modernism might be seen as two different ways of putting the same primary process: Use everything available on hand. Reinvent the world. New money, labor power, or intelligent technology. Put it all together and make it into a beautiful architecture.
The third type is sanctified, I call it butonic or mystical architecture. But the formal norm is a sober, stable enclosure around the individual (with each room being one) or a space (the Sistine Chapel is but some of the examples).
Modernism, though, was not exactly a secular project, and yet many butanic buildings, including some sacred ones, stand out as sacred. The inside is sacramental or religious even if the external case is secular. This kind of sacred architecture is very diverse, but it often exists in tandem with unholiness. For instance, the inner courtyard in the Virgin Mary Chapel at Corpus Christi University, Rome, is thought to be the grandest mausoleum in all the Roman Empire and is the most expensive and most luxurious chapel in the world.
All this leads to the fourth type: the labyrinthatic, and I call it my personal favorite. Such buildings avoid the uses of an all-encompassing space and shelter some isolated thought or action. They often combine it with something deep and mysterious. They often feature idiosyncratic spaces. This kind of architecture, more than its counterparts in the other four categories, has the least demand for rationalization and explanation. Rather, a labyrinthocentric experience has a spiritual effect: a kind of branching tunnel.
This ideal design scheme makes architecture a potent vehicle for resolving conflict. Although freedom often ends up as a pretty beautiful thing in architectural form, the individual can often be alienating in life. In making us look, see, and go, architecture can make us more accepting. Not bad for a profession that tends to tax both mind and body.
The final and hopefully most unified type is dynamic architecture. This is the category that seemed to catch Heath’s attention when he termed it “the exciting, always-changing new thing.” This is the archetypal building, the megaphone of its time. It can be both beautiful and beautiful and beautiful, depending on the beholder. From the modernist industrial-design organization to the beehive (both the bark and its hive on a bee), this category describes many familiar and very welcome urban buildings. The “nifty modern” office building is at the other end of the spectrum, a box that can be dispensed with.
The forms of dynamic architecture bring together a variety of ideas, interests, and textures. They are flexible. As for Heath, the most refreshing idea that the project identifies is that cultural intensification—what NYC calls cultural renewal—must be enacted in the physical realm.

Each year brings new trends for modern architecture. If its something you value, bing in the know can make all the difference. Here are this years 6 most prominent trends in Architecture:

SUSTAINABILITY – Designing for sustainability isn’t anything new on the architecture scene, but the solutions architects are using are so 2019. Sustainability isn’t just about using energy-rated appliances and a few solar panels, but really considering the impact building has on the environment. With that in mind, more designers are turning to locally sourced, sustainable building materials to get started. Sustainability is being built right into the walls with more efficient fixtures and even indoor green spaces. You might not even know that your architect is a stickler for sustainability because great designers simply make it a seamless part of your build.

SMALL SPACE LIVING – Small spaces continue to be a growing trend in 2019—including tiny cabins, petite prefabs, and breathtaking airstream transformations. Minimalism and tiny living can be great solutions for anyone trying to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, or for those that simply don’t have an abundance of space to work with. Small space living proves that no matter how much space you have (or don’t have), there’s always room for good design.

Joshua Hart: Architecture Enthusiast

Pushing Beyond Architecture

There is one constant in life: structure & arcitecture. Everything from the trunks of trees, the ancient pillars of Rome has structure and architecture. Truly, arcitecutre has permiated every aspect of our lives and is something we should actively study.